Archive for December, 2010

Those who drill into the earth understand that it is made of water as well as rock and soil. It seems, however, that they did not convey such knowledge to those who have built towering structures in modern cities around the world. Many of these buildings are sinking now, because the populations around them have overly drained earth’s aquifers beneath them. Buildings in such countries as China, Mexico, Italy, Indonesia, Thailand, Mexico and even in the United States, are sinking because of disappearing ground water.

Engineers in Jakarta, Indonesia, which is sinking at about 3.5 centimeters a year, were frantically building deep injection wells, hoping to quickly replenish the groundwater there. But, according to Arientha Primanita’s article in the Jakarta Globe, that effort was stopped because it was too expensive. And according to China Daily.com in 2003, some 46 cities in China have buildings sinking because “overused groundwater supplies threaten to pull the soil out from under the nation’s cities, . . .” Again, the problem is China’s fast track to become a first world nation: “Surface subsidence picked up speed over the last two decades as a result of an increasing demand for groundwater caused by fast economic growth and urbanization, pollution of surface water and the construction of skyscrapers . . .” At last report, the central government was studying the problem.

Moreover, even as Iran’s leaders are doing everything to develop nuclear power, their nation’s cities are sinking from overuse of groundwater. Kate Ravilious of National Geographic News reports: “Iran’s insatiable demand for water, which is being drawn out of aquifers far faster than it can be replenished, is causing large chunks of farmland to sink and buildings to crack.” This very dry nation now depends on aquifers for 50% of its water. To provide food for its citizens, farmers dig ever deeper for underground water––that will soon run-out.

Buildings in other cities around the world, including in the United States, are similarly sinking because of overuse of aquifer water. Some will be discussed in the next blog. But necessary in any discussion about underground water is understanding of water’s intricate involvement in earth’s construction. Wholesale Christian Bibles states, “For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by The Word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water (2 Peter 3: 5).” One of the earliest Names by which God identifies Himself in The Bible is Jehovah-Elohim (Genesis 2:4) which means The Eternal, Immutable Creator. But most builders don’t check with Him before they build. Most industrial farmers don’t seek His permission to dig multiple wells. And surely, architects don’t ask His permission before taking underground water to moisten grassy golf courses. Such willful ignorance is now destroying the earth.

In this year when the places like Seattle, Washington, and other parts of the Pacific Northwest, are experiencing unprecedented amounts of cold and snow, many are asking, “what’s up with Global Warming?” Housing in the Microsoft state is not insulated for such weather. But homes in the Midwest and Northeast are assumed to be prepared for such winters, yet this year’s unrelenting snow and chill factor seems to be a bit much for those regions as well.

Judah Cohen writes a great editorial entitled, “Bundle Up, It’s Global Warming,” in the December 26 edition of the New York Times. In technical detail, he explains why so many long-range weather forecasters misdiagnosed the severity of this winter. Primarily, they looked at the warm air of El Nino moving over warming oceans, and they didn’t consider the cold air pushing south from Siberia. The Cohen editorial concludes: “The reality is, we’re freezing not in spite of climate change [i.e. Global Warming] but because of it.”

Of course, this site started warning its readers last fall that an unprecedented blast of winter was coming this season. And that is because, writers and staff at this site take the affects of Global Warming as a more ominous threat than most professional forecasters do. Like the nation’s politicians, too many forecasters seem to believe that this is all just weather and it too will pass. Sorry! As Grammy use to say, “It ain’t gonna happen.”

The same Global Warming that produces oppressively hot summers and unprecedentedly cold winters is a man-made phenomenon. It is the result of this over-industrialized post-modern age, in which a few scions think they are free to do anything possible to push the limits of Nature. To amass their insatiable desire for wealth, these men: build huge dams destroying rivers, fish and other wild-life; bulldoze away rain forests and other trees vital for cleansing earth’s atmosphere; over-fish the same oceans they have contaminated with garbage and industrial waste, while slaughtering whales for food they don’t need; pollute more air with sooty smoke around the globe, while allowing left-over industrial waste to seep into the ground, contaminating the same soil and water upon which they design industrialized agriculture. The list is endless. And feigning ignorance, world leaders do little to stop such world-wide destruction.

As the Book of Revelation points out, instead of accepting responsibility for Global Warming, these scions probably blame God for it: “And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory (16: 9).” But the Bible answers: God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3: 9). This earth needs political and financial leaders willing to repent––that is to change their reactions to Global Warming and to God.

Like the United States, other nations around the world now struggle with swift declines of fresh water resources. Not only smaller, Third World countries, but larger nations, attempting to quickly achieve mass-industrialization, struggle with insufficient supplies of fresh water. And, again the reasons are: industrialized agriculture; wasteful overuse of water supplies; and Global Warming. But not nearly enough research has been designed for this crucial problem. As pointed out in the last blog at this site, governments are not publicly concerned. And the issue receives little attention in mass media, in spite of the fact that the world’s populations depend upon food and fresh water to sustain life, and the production of food also depends upon fresh water.

Most of this excessive demand for fresh underground water has exploded around the world in the last 50 years. A research team, headed by Marc Bierkens of Utrecht University and the International Groundwater Resources Assessment Center in the Netherlands, published a report in the Geophysical Research Letters that “northeastern China, northwestern India, Iran, northeastern Pakistan, southeastern Spain . . .” have severe depletions of aquifer ground water. They also report that “the vast majority of the pumped groundwater is ending up in the ocean, where it is a major contributor to the world’s rising sea levels.”

The Global Warming and Groundwater Depletion blog adds the countries of Algeria, Egypt, Pakistan, Iran and Mexico to the list. This study also insists that Global Warming is just as responsible as industrial agriculture for the drying up of ground water. Their logic is that ground water depletion leads to loss of vegetation, and loss of vegetation increases Global Warming and increasing Global Warming steals water from earth that would usually replenish ground water. Certainly, experts believe that the growing disappearance of lakes and water ways in China, Russia, India, etc., is attributed to Global Warming.

One report pointed out that lack of fresh water supplies will eventually lead to social unrest, which is simply a polite way of saying that lack of sufficient water and food will inevitably lead to war. It is impossible to avoid such wars for human survival, as the world’s population massively increases (now up to over six billion), and the world’s supply of fresh water, and thus food, massively decreases. Discussions of the end-times in wholesale Christian books includes the Horses of the Apocalypse, and the murderous fallen angels riding the horses of war, famine, disease and death. And the decline of fresh water on earth invites all of these prophetically destructive horses, with their riders of evil, to trample on the scene of earth’s decline sooner, rather than later!

Fresh Water––the most precious resource for earthly survival––is running out! Why is this not on front-page headlines? What are governments doing about it? What actions are being taken? Why is the public not informed? Only a few internet writers are asking these questions, but no one in authority is answering.

This is undoubtedly the greatest untold story being withheld from earth’s populations today: vital underground water resources are quickly disappearing in the United States and around the world. And Global Warming, industrialized agriculture and wasteful, negligent water usages are the suspected causes. Over 95% of all the fresh water on earth is stored underground in rock formations called aquifers. At the rate that the human population is consuming water, it will take 6,000 years to restore earth’s water supply. Moreover, much of the underground water that is left is contaminated by human neglect and waste.

This problem is particularly acute in the midwestern part of the United States where the Ogallala Aquifer provides water to eight states: Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska and South Dakota––a region known as the breadbasket, not only for this country, but for the world. The Ogallala is 174,000 square miles long and includes some 980 trillion gallons of fresh water. Scientific America reports that 90% of the water pumped out of the Ogallala Aquifer is used to irrigate crops. This breadbasket’s business amounts to $ 20 billions a year. And Jane Braxton Little, reporter for Scientific American, revealed in 2009, that in some places the Ogallala Aquifer was already empty.

The APEC Human Resources Development Working Group also insists that the dry region of those eight states prevents the easy recharging, or rewatering, of the Ogallala watering source. And further, that “what recharge is accomplished has brought arsenic, chloroform, pesticides, and other compounds into the aquifer.” In other words, the APEC study concludes that the present state of the Ogallala Aquifer could mean economic collapse for midwest and the nation. APEC suggests that the government institute educational programs about “efficient irrigation practices,” as well as mobilization “to utilize recycled water sources.” In short, this means finding new ways to use water that people have already used––because there may be no fresh water left.

Chapters 3 and 33 in the Book of Ezekiel in wholesale Christian Bibles raises the concept of watchmen at the gate. Political leaders, mainstream media and––in a democracy––the American public are the nation’s watchmen. But if watchmen don’t cry out warnings, the judgment for allowing disaster falls on them. However, if they do warn the people, and the people don’t respond, the judgment falls on those who deliberately refuse to hear. What could be a greater disaster than the pending death of fresh water? And where are the screaming watchmen?

Israeli citizens were stunned last week at their government’s inability to deal with spreading wildfires. Some 30 countries had to fly, or truck, in to help Israel battle the blazes. And the nation’s citizens expressed outrage. While some attempt to blame Hezbollah for the fires, Israeli scientists placed the blame solely on Global Warming. Israel and other Middle East nations had been suffering under a severe above-average heat wave as high as 122 degrees. But, like many nations, Israel is so concentrated on their military and political enemies, that some domesticated problems were neglected. And, like politicians elsewhere, Israeli officials have not taken seriously the risks resulting from Global Warming.

With a years-long freeze against hiring new firefighters, and apparently against acquiring sufficient fire fighting equipment, the nation was ill-prepared to fight the type of massive flames that destroyed some 10,000 acres and four million trees, killed some 40 victims, and evacuated 17,000 people from their homes. According to the Associated Press, “Israeli firefighters have complained for years of undersized crews, outdated equipment and minimal supplies. While Israel has a highly sophisticated air force, its firefighting force of 1,400 doesn’t have a single plane. It ran out of flame retardants on the first day of the blaze.”

The Associated Press quoted Nahum Barnea, a well-known columnist in the Yediot Abronot Daily, “We are entitled to expect of our governments not to be smart only after the fact but – at least once – to be smart before disaster strikes.” But, as early as 10 years ago, Guy Pe’er at Ben Gurion University, and other Climate Change researchers, have been warning the nation that Global Warming would do great harm to the Mediterranean region. Further, they said that longer periods of extreme heat, late winter rainfall and less rainfall would eventually lead to forest fires. But no one in political authority listened. As Pe’er told columnist Robert Alder, “It’s a matter of our consumption, our society and habits,” Pe’er says. “We consume more than we need and more than Earth can sustain, and by that we bring about climate change and risk our own future.”

His comments well-apply to other nations, particularly to the United States. In recent years, a positive-confession wave has gone through American Christianity. Well that movement is certainly Biblical, the Bible also includes times when God’s people were given negative warnings about pending disasters. These would include the ministries of Noah, Isaiah, Jeremiah and others. Even, in His earthly ministry, The Lord Jesus warned believers of the devastation that would befall the world before His return. Of course, people did not believe Him, or the other prophets in their day. But, as believers shop for gifts, such as wholesale Christian purses, this holiday, hopefully they will listen to the prophets, scholars, scientists and others shouting warnings about Global Warming now.

John: “I’m doing ok. Are you ready for Christmas? All your shoppin’ done?”

Aunt Bea: “My goodness no. Them malls are too crowded and I just don’t feel like pushin’ through all those people to try to find stuff. Besides its just too much walking.”

John: “Yeah I know what ya’ mean. What kind of things you lookin’ for?”

Aunt Bea: “Well, I want to get some warm fun relax clothes for my daughter and son-in-law and grand kids. They goes to see my grandson play soccer and they needs to be warm. The one sports store I could push my way into into didn’t have anything to suit my daughter. And they didn’t have a lot of different things to choose from anyway. And stuff had been so picked over! It’s just awful!”

John: “Sure I knows what you mean. And I like to get things that have some Christian message with ‘em but that is even harder to find.

Aunt Bea: “Absolutely. But you don’t see many things like that in the malls, or in the mail order books either. At this point, I don’t know what I’m gonna do. It may have to be some money in a card I guess.”

John: No. No wait up Bea. I found just the thing for you. Click on wholesale Christian sweatshirts. It is just perfect for the kids. The shirts there have great words and pictures that witness for Jesus. They can even use‘em for pajamas. And for goin’ to sports and everything. And you still have time to get it in the mail or under the tree for Christmas.”

Aunt Bea: “Oh John that sounds perfect. And it will be a chance to remind everyone about God’s love. Let me get off the phone and go to the computer right now.”

The United Nations proved its leadership at the International Climate Change meeting in Cancun last week. At least that meeting was more successful than the one in Copenhagen last year. Poorer nations will get economic support to “go green,” and a few countries agreed to join forces against Global Warming. But, in reality, the Climate Change meetings in Cancun, did little to harness the nations that do the most to pollute the air, such as the United States and China.

Alden Meyer, spokesman for the Union of Concerned Scientists lamented that it “wasn’t enough to save the climate, but “it did restore the credibility of the United Nations as a forum where progress can be made.” But, he added, because so many main issues were not addressed, the groups will have an even tougher time when meeting next year in Durban, South Africa.

At least, according to Arthur Max of the Associated Press, representatives from 193 nations heard the bad from a NASA report that “the January-November 2010 global temperatures were the warmest in the 131-year record. Its data indicated the year would likely end as the warmest on record . . .”

One positive result of the meeting is what is known as “Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation.” It is intended to curb carbon emissions from logging and burning in large forest areas, while giving protection to people and animals living in those areas. However, while spokesmen put the most positive spin on what forward progress there was, in truth, the nations would not agree on ways to severely cut down carbon emissions in the very near future. Thus, the earth will do nothing but continue to get warmer.

Another positive result is that countries and regions will now work together to reduce emissions. For instance, according to Juliet Eilperin and William Booth of the Washington Post, “businesses in California will offset their greenhouse gas emissions by funding tropical forest preservation in Mexico and Brazil.” And Japan will fund construction of nuclear power plants in developing nations.

So much of what goes for knowledge on this earth is really fiction. What is truth today may turn out to be untrue tomorrow. Things on earth constantly change, and too often, not for the better. The only places maintaining permanent status as revealed to mankind are heaven and hell. But according to God’s Word, prayer can change things on earth. Or as the Apostle James says, “ . . . the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much (5: 16). Hopefully, as believers shop this Christmas for wholesale Christian t-shirts, they will remember that prayer is truly the greatest human force on earth. It is greater than war. Prayer can do things when all other efforts fail. The meetings in Cancun may not have accomplished a lot, but praying people still have time to apply the old fashion “kneeology” of prayer. That can really cool the planet.

If prophecies by Mayan Indians, Hopi Indians, the prophet Nostradamus, and other occult, religious, quasi-scientific and cultural beliefs around the world are correct––normal activity on this Earth will be over in two years and a few days. Precisely on December 21, 2012. Apparently some in Hollywood believe the date to be authentic, as a blockbuster film showing the complete annihilation of this planet was released recently with the title “2012.” Those who study astrology point out that the date happens to be the time of the winter solstice, which in that particular year will significantly line up with the Milky Way’s equator.

A very sophisticated people for their time, the Mayans built seemingly perfect calendar systems based on their astute knowledge of star systems, indicating that the Grand Cycle of the earth will end on that 2012 date. While scientists and others debunk the Mayan prophecy, others claim that the Mayans were instructed about these dates from alien visitors. (See pic of Mayan temple)

But then, noted British scholar, Isaac Newton, along with Albert Einstein, considered one of two of the greatest scientists who ever lived, insists that the Earth, as we know it, will not be destroyed until 2060. A devout Christian with rather unorthodox beliefs, Newton based his calculations on very close study of The Bible, particularly the numbers involved in the construction of Solomon’s Temple. According to an article in Wikipedia, “Newton believed that the temple was designed by King Solomon with privileged eyes and divine guidance. To Newton, the geometry of the temple represented more than a mathematical blueprint, it also provided a time-frame chronology of Hebrew history.”

The History Channel’s end-of-the earth studies point out that Newton left his findings about Earth’s end with families that were wealthy enough to conceal them from church officials. At that time, such conclusions would have been banned as heresy, which was punishable by death. The article adds: “Newton felt that just as the writings of ancient philosophers, scholars, and Biblical figures contained within them unknown sacred wisdom, the same was true of their architecture.” He wrote that these men hid what they knew “in a complex code of symbolic and mathematical language that, when deciphered, would reveal an unknown knowledge of how nature works.” From his study of these phenomena Newton concluded that the Earth would suffer a colossal end in 2060.

However, The Lord Jesus Christ instructs Christians (including Newton), “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only (Matthew 24: 36).” (See also Matthew 24: 42, 50; Mark 13: 32). However, Jesus did discuss several signs that would indicate Earth’s ending. As believers prepare for the holidays with wholesale Christian gifts, they should study those many signs. Some will be discussed in future blogs at this site.

Someone should have told planners of the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Cancun, Mexico this week, that they should have chosen a better meeting sight. First, rising sea waters are eroding Cancun’s lovely white sand beaches and now lap waves against its hotels. Second, drug wars have pushed Mexico to the brink of failed statehood status. And third, even with these extreme examples of Global Warming’s effects, Climate Change delegates seem powerless to do anything about the source of Cancun’s beach and tourist problem.

Mark Stevenson of the Associated Press reports, “Rising sea levels and a series of unusually powerful hurricanes have aggravated the folly of building a tourist destination atop shifting sand dunes on a narrow peninsula. After the big storms hit, much of Cancun’s glittering hotel strip was left without a beach.” He writes that hotel planners designed their projects too tall, too heavy and too close to shore. Moreover, stripping the beaches of natural vegetation to make them more inviting for tourist, also took away nature’s protection from hurricanes for those beaches. So many Category 4 and 5 hurricanes have hit Mexico in recent decades that, according to Stevenson, “Many scientists blame such extreme weather patterns on climate change.” Although investors and governments have tried to restore the sandy beaches with dumped-in sand, this too is being washed away.

This blog has not covered Mexico’s deadly gang wars. But they do get media coverage, including underground tunnels running from Mexico to the United States bringing in tons of narcotics for distribution here. Those wars are tearing Mexico apart, and although that government has even used its military to aide police in stopping gang war violence against each other, against innocent civilians, against mayors, police officials and other officials––they still fight a losing battle.

This Climate Change Conference is the 16th since 1995. But is it not ironic that with all the evidence of Global Warming, most in attendance don’t expect much progress on international cooperation to stop Global Warming? In his blog, Meteor Blades says that political resistance in the U. S. is the problem. Because of this, he writes “there will be a billion people who lose their homes because of climate change and 3 billion who lose access to clean drinking water supplies.”

However, all of these ironies remain misplaced until everyday citizens turn their governments’ attention to God, Who is ultimately the only True Problem Solver. But it is most ironic that as beaches around the world wash away, as crime, corruption, greed, violence and natural and economic destruction rises to unprecedented heights everywhere––very few people turn to God for answers. It is truly time to turn to Christian prayer books for examples of earnest prayers of repentance, and then to intercede for families, governments and nations.

Of course those bedbugs who made it from New York to California would only be meeting their cousins coming back from Hawaii. On his blog, Attorney Wayne Parsons, who practices in the Aloha state, says that Hawaii especially has a horrible bedbug problem, and that hotels work very hard there to keep the matter away from the media. Parsons insists that such secrecy is unfair to tourists, and that the bug problem will ultimately affect that state’s tourist industry, if it is not dealt with. He is hopeful that the federal government’s involvement will give more guidance to state and business health officials.

Parsons gives some tips from Victoria Fickle, an entomologist with the State of Hawaii Department of Health, for travelers to protect themselves from bedbugs: 1) Remove all sheets and inspect mattresses when first going to a hotel looking for any bugs or blood spots, even pull beds away from walls and check wall areas; 2) Don’t keep suitcases near hotel beds or store clothes on hotel furniture; 3) Keep suitcases zipped at all times; 4) When leaving the hotel, put belongings in sealed plastic bags; 5) When returning home, wash all clothes and dry them at highest possible temperatures. If items can’t be washed, put them in zip-top bags and place in the freezer for several days; 6) Vacuum suitcases and travel bags, being especially mindful of seams and corners; 7) Do these things immediately and at the first signs of bedbugs––get professional help. This help is needed, because perhaps the biggest problem with bedbug attacks is the emotional strain it has on the victims.

Reports from various victims indicate that this emotional strain drives people to drastic measures. One couple being ferociously attacked by bedbugs finally moved out of their long-term leased New York apartment, gave up their aspirations for Broadway, and returned to their birthplace in the South. They simply couldn’t take it any more. Exodus 8: 21 should be added to other examples from Scripture on bedbugs: “Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of FLIES upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of FLIES, and also the ground whereon they are.” Again, as explained in several past blogs, the term “flies” means various kinds of attacking insects. As believers shop for wholesale Christian gifts this holiday, perhaps some of those gifts should be pretested for these bugs. On the other hand, good Bible translations that make God’s requirements and intentions clear would also make great gifts.